The condottieri of Cyrus the Foreign Legion
crafty and ruthless - to be sure - murdered
two hundred and fifteen daylong marches
- please kill us we can't go any farther -
thirty-four thousand six hundred fifty stadia
harrowed by insomnia they traversed wild countries
tricky fords snowy mountain passes and salty plains
hacking a path through the living bodies of peoples
it's good they didn't claim to be defending civilization
the famous cry on the mountains of Teches
is interpreted incorrectly by sentimental poets
they had just found the sea a way out of the dungeon
they journeyed without Bible prophets burning bushes
without signs on earth without signs from the heavens
with the terrible consciousness that life is momentous.
crafty and ruthless - to be sure - murdered
two hundred and fifteen daylong marches
- please kill us we can't go any farther -
thirty-four thousand six hundred fifty stadia
harrowed by insomnia they traversed wild countries
tricky fords snowy mountain passes and salty plains
hacking a path through the living bodies of peoples
it's good they didn't claim to be defending civilization
the famous cry on the mountains of Teches
is interpreted incorrectly by sentimental poets
they had just found the sea a way out of the dungeon
they journeyed without Bible prophets burning bushes
without signs on earth without signs from the heavens
with the terrible consciousness that life is momentous.
Zbigniew Herbert, The Collected Poems 1956 - 1998, Alissa Valles, Ecco, 2007
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